Yui Onodera first attracted attention with work released on his own Critical Path label in 2005. It wasn't too long after that he attracted the attention of Drone Records, and/OAR, Mystery Sea, Taalem and Gears Of Sand (releases still forthcoming on Mystery Sea and Gears Of Sand).

Suisei is a work composed from field recordings and pump organ.Edited and re-mastered by Dale Lloyd.

With Suisei, each listener's inner cinema will find its camera lens slowly panning and cross-fading from one enigmatic location to another, as if unveiling ambiguous visual clues pertaining to some wondrous culminating event that many might not fully understand, yet it will still manage to leave an indelible impression upon the subconscious mind and a very subtle pull on the emotions. A mystery drone soundscape journey along the shores of an unfathomable glistening sea...

"Suisei is a composition by Yui Onodera that I like very much.Almost tactile like use drone material, a seeming mix of environmental and instrumental sounds (water seems to be a key element, and a pump organ is mentioned). The piece builds slowly and inexorably, with a nice sense of pacing. We might think it is over after about a half an hour but happily the work continues even beyond. We never know where the composer is leading us, but we are happy to find ourselves there." (Carl Stone)

Earlabs (March 2008)Suisei describes a gradual movement along a horizontal plain, hedged by field recordings and drones that are ever changing, as multiple frequencies interact through the vertical laminates, revealing a microtonal world simmering with low-key drama and incident.

With past works already released on labels such as Mystery Sea, this recording represents his most comprehensive and cogent statement to date. A narrative is erected before one's minds eye, one which knows how to capture one's desire in anticipation of what might be revealed at the end. In this vein, Onodera exploits the harmonic space to spread out chordal shifts and inject mood and tension into pure, abstracted soundworlds. Change and continuity are then united in his carefully tending to the interplay of the field recordings with the pump organ, as he patiently waits for the interaction to reach a natural endpoint before gradually weaving in new elements as the old die away in a wonderfully slow cross-fade.

Another part of his approach is to diligently explore a few different aspects of one thing. This is then mixed with incremental developments, which makes for a dream-like environment, one in which the sounds assume a startling physicality while at the same time seeming inexhaustible in character.

The pacing is in keeping with this, moving smoothly as it does from lulling to edgily ambiguous. The production is done with delicacy and minimalist rigor, and as with a stick or rock, it's consistent the entire way through. Indeed, that it is so well organized in every regard only helps further the sense that all of these pieces have emerged from a consistent and rigorous aesthetic. (Max Schaefer)

The Wire (February 2008)Suisei translates from the Japanese with a number of meanings. It could be a comet, or the Japanese name for the planet Mercury, or an adjective for "aquatic", particularly with reference to the strength of a river current. In the case of Yui Onodera's album, the watery metaphors apply. Sourced from field recordings and pump organ, Suisei is a meditative album which transitions effectively between humble drips, wet smacks and lulling patter of water tumbling through the landscape. Onodera doesn't pretend that his field recording techniques enjoy the pristine fidelity of Chris Watson or a Douglas Quin, rather his mottled sounds embrace the abstraction produced through contact microphones and consumer-grade dictation mics. Sustained drones from his pump organ buttress the quiet hypnosis of these field recordings, thanks to the instrument's woozy oscillations. The organ's harmonics gradually swell as ghostly slippages of sound descend gracefully into compressed wintry din and aquatic percolations. (Jim Haynes)

Aquarius Records (January 2008)Not much information to present about who Yui Onodera is. Nor is there anything in the way of a conceptual framework to guide one through this album beyond its sources from "environmental sound and pump organ." Not that it really matters anyway, as Suisei is a gorgeous album of darkly textured drones with parallels to Thomas Koner's isolationist compositions or Keith Berry's precious deconstructions. Wind, rain, and water all make themselves known in the collection of field recordings, as does the pump organ, which reveals itself in harmonic sustained tones with a spectral timbre (e.g. Niblock, Radigue, Chalk, etc.). During a particular enigmatic episode, wooden creaks and sodden groans duet with a motorized persistant soft-grind, giving the impression that some unscrupulous machine is quietly compacting sinews, meat, and bone. Strangely, it never sounds macabre or unsettlingly grotesque; rather, these crunching textures situate humbly next to a hypnotic wash of compressed static and melancholic shadowy drone, which sublimely shift into a slippery crescendo of grey massed sound. Very, very well done!

Touching Extremes (May 2008)Sometimes I feel in dire trouble, cornered in the condition of finding words to describe what is a relatively simple record that nevertheless touches certain depths, which not many artists can manage to, their display of technical prowess notwithstanding. In the case of Yui Onodera, a clue was reading the “special thanks” to Mystery Sea’s boss Daniel Crokaert on the sleeve: where this man is found, the presence of water is all but assured (and the Japanese artist has releases out on that label, too - stay tuned). Indeed this album is strongly based on different aquatic hues in various kinds of sonic gradations and dripping intensity. Not only that, Onodera also made good use of uncertainly definable “environmental sounds” - apparently slightly treated, at least in well (in)determinate foggier sections - and splendid ghostly emergences of his pump organ, whose static chords enter the picture in sparse appearances, like a detached narrator would in a minimal theatre performance where the audience understands what happens but somehow still appreciates to be led amidst the subplots. The composer succeeds in chipping the commonplace off the utilization of water as a compositional means, an austere processing the key factor in creating a natural path through which the piece slowly walks, delivered from useless glittering clothes, extremely profound in its almost religious concoction of deep-breath silent prayer and severe concentration. Elemental innocence that doesn’t promise an easy penetrability. (Massimo Ricci)

Art Of Memory (November 2007)So far, one of my favourite discs of 2007, simply beautiful and delicate, produced and designed by Dale Lloyd, one of his (and/OAR) best yet. (Matthew Swiezynski)